Starting mechanism



Patented Feb. 15, 1938 (UNITED STATES STARTING MECHANISM Andrew G. McNicoll, Minneapolis, Minn, assignor to Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Com- I pany, Minneapolis, Minn., a corporation of Delaware Application August 28,

Claims.

This invention relates to starting mechanism and more particularly to starting mechanism for use in the art of horology.

The structure of the instant invention may be advantageously applied to the mechanism shown in an application of Carl G. Kronmiller entitled "Thermostat" Serial No. 98,326 filed of even date herewith, but it will be readilyunderstood that it may also have utility as applied to any clock or watch whatever its use.

One object of this invention is the provision of improved mechanism for ensuring the starting of a clock or watch upon winding thereof. 4

A further object is the provision of such a mechanism which may be actuated directly from the winding stem of the timepiece without the use of auxiliary levers or other manual mechanism for actuating the same.

A still further object is the provision of a starting mechanism which will act directly on the balance wheel of a watch or clock upon rotation of the winding stem to impart to the balance wheel a relatively swift snap movement to ensure continued reciprocation of the same.

A further object is the provision of a starting mechanism which will be relatively compact and require little additional space in the casing of a timepiece.

A still ,further object is the provision of such a 30 mechanism which will be durable in construction,

1 simple to assemble and reliable in operation.

As conducive to a clearer understanding of this invention, it may here be pointed out that clocks or watches upon stoppage from any normal cause, such as the normal unwinding of the main spring, have hitherto required shaking or tapping to agitate the internal mechanism upon rewinding in order to start the same. Frequently, the necessity for such agitation has resulted in serious damage to the clock mechanism. It should be noted that in a conventional clock mechanism failure to restart upon the application of renewed tension to the main spring isusually the result of failure to overcome the frictionalengagement of the parts comprising theescape mechanism, such as the relative interlocking of the teeth of the escape wheel with the pallet pins. Agitation of the balance wheel" or a'slight rotation thereof will usually, under-normal circumstances, result in 50 the release of this engagement to permit the escape mechanism to function in'its normal manner. Hitherto various deviceshave been applied to clock mechanisms which serve, in one manner or another, to impart such rotation to the balance wheel to release the escape mechanism, liowcver,

1936, Serial No. 98,288

in the prior art, these devices have been uniformly complicated and bulky and have without exception required the use of a separate manual lever to actuate the same.

A further object of this invention is the provision of a starting mechanism designed to obviate the above mentioned difficulties by eliminating the possibility of damage to the clock mechanism by shaking or tapping the same, and further, to eliminate the necessity for auxiliary manual means to actuate the starting mechanism.

The structure of this invention also has particular utility in association with clock or watch mechanism adapted to stop after a predetermined period as is the casein the structure of the application of Carl G. Kronmiller above mentioned. In such instances, it is desirable that suitable mechanism be provided to permit the adjustment of the main spring to a requisite tension including means to relieve excessive tension thereon should the mechanism be too tightly wound. Such mechanism comprising a slip friction device in association with the main spring, whereby a reverse rotation of the winding stem serves to unwind the main spring, is shown herein but forms no part of the instant invention except in combination with the starting mechanism to be hereinafter described.

An additional object of the invention is the provision of a starting mechanism which will act only upon winding of the timepiece and be unaffected by such unwinding as described above,

Other objects will in part be obvious and in part be pointed out hereinafter.

The invention, accordingly, consists in the arrangements of parts, combinations of elements and features of construction all as will be pointed out hereinafter and shown in the accompanying drawings and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the appended claims.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings wherein is shown one of the various possible embodiments of this invention, Figure l is an elevational view, partly in section, of a clock mechanism having the starting mechanism of the instant invention applied thereto. I

Figure 2 is a schematic perspective view showing certain portions of the instant invention in association with certain portions of a, conventional clock mechanism.

Figure 3 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line 33 ofFigure 1 as viewed at an angle from the upper left, certain parts being shown in elevation and certain other parts being ,Qmlt fid'i'or the sake of clarity.

Figures 4 and 5 are enlarged elevational views of the starting mechanism of the instant invention and certain mechanism associated therewith, parts thereof being broken away, in two positions of adjustment.

Figure 6 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line 6-6 of Figure 1 as viewed at an angle from the upper right.

Figure 7 is a sectional view along line 1-1 of Figure 6 as viewed from the bottom.

Figure 8 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line 8-8 of Figure 7 as seen from the top.

Figure 9 is a side" elevational view of certain portions of the mechanism of the instant invention showing also a fragment of the casing or cover for the mechanism and parts thereon coacting with certain mechanism of the'internal structure.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout several views of the drawings.

Referring now to the drawings and more particularly to Figure 1, there isgenerally indicated at I0 a clock mechanism comprised of a front plate II, a back plate I2 and a bridge plate I3 held in related assembly by suitable spacers and screws I4. One end of a main spring I5 is secured in any desired manner to an anchor stud I6 and the other end is suitably secured to a collet I8 (see Figure 6) forming an integral part of a shaft I1 and centrally disposed with respect to the coil of spring I5. A conventional gear train driven by main spring I5 is generally indicated at I9 and includes a first wheel 20 rotatably mounted on collet I8 and having spokes 2| (see Figure 2) and a fourth wheel 22. Fourth wheel 22 is adapted to engage a conventional escape pinion 25 mounted on an escape wheel 26, the teeth of which engage pallet pins 21 carried by a pallet lever arm 28 mounted on a pallet arbor 29. Pallet lever arm 28 is bifurcated in the conventional manner and a roller pin 30 is adapted to be positioned between the bifurcations thereof. Roller pin 30 is mounted on a balance wheel 3| which is in turn supported by a balance staff 32 having conventional tapered ends 33 and 34. As better shown in Figure 3, balance cups 35 and 36 carried respectively by back plate I2 and front plate N form a suitable mounting for ends 33 and 34, respectively. A hair spring 31 is positioned between a conventional hair spring 001-,

let 38 carried by staff 32 and a hair spring stud 39 mounted on back plate I2.

A shaft 45 is secured, as by peening 46, to bridge plate I3 and extends upwardly therefrom. Rotatably mounted about shaft 45 is a winding stem 48 which has a gear 49 integrally associated therewith. A collar 50 positioned above gear 49 carries a projection 5|, the purpose of which will be more fully described hereinafter. A handle 52 is secured to the upper end of stem 48' as by a screw 53. A gear 54 is suitablysplined to shaft I1 and the arrangement is such that gear 49 meshes with gear 54 and motion transmitted through handle 52 is accordingly transmitted to shaft I1 and through collet I8 to spring I5 to vary the tension thereof, motion in one direction tending to tension spring I5 and in the other direction to relieve the tension thereon, all as will be more fully described hereinafter.

An arbor 55 mounted in suitable apertures in front plate I and back plate I2 carries at an extremity a pinion 56 having thereon a plurality of teeth 51, 58, 59 and 60. As better shown in FiguresA and 5, it will be seen that teeth 51 and 58 and teeth 59 and 60 are oppositely disposed in axial alignment with respect to each other and that teeth 51 and 59 and 58 and 60 form adjacent teeth of a gear sector having a configuration adapted to mesh with the teeth of gear 49. A collet 6| disposed on arbor 55 between front plate H and back plate I2 carries two spring arms 62 and 83 secured thereto in any suitable manner as by insertion in suitable slots and subsequent peening of the slots. As better shown in Figure 3, tooth 59 has its lower portion cut away as indicated at 64. Tooth 60 is likewise cut away in a similar manner in order that a spring 65, one end of which is secured to a suitable stud 96, may engage the depending portion of teeth 51 and 58 for a purpose to be described hereinafter. It will be seen that this depending portion of teeth 51 and 58 comprises a bar-like member which acts,

under certain circumstances, as a cam-like abutment on spring 65. Pinion 5G is so positioned that its teeth engage the teeth of gear 49 and arms 62 and 63 are adapted, upon rotation of pinion 56, to abut and wipe against balance wheel 3| to impart a rotary motion thereto and consequently release any inter-engagement of the escape mechanism hereinbefore described.

Having particular reference to Figures 2- and 4, it will be seen that as handle 52 is rotated in a clockwise direction, teeth 51 and 59 are engaged by the teeth of gear 49 and the depending portion of tooth 51 abuts spring 65 to force the same outwardly until the central portion of the lower part of tooth 5'! has passed a tangential point of abutment with spring 65, at which time the tension of spring 65 against the lower portion of tooth 51 in an off-center position causes pinion 55 to snap rapidly to the position shown in Figure 5. Such motion results in the rapid movement of arm 63 past balance wheel 3|, the path of movement being shown by the dot and dash line in Figure 4'. The spring constituency of arm 63 permits it to bend inwardly upon abutment with balance wheel 3| as best shown in Figure 3. Such action, it will readily be seen, results in the imparting of a rapid rotary motion to balance wheel 3| which is in turn transmitted to the conventional oscillatory motion by hair spring 31 which, the interengagement of the escape mechanism having been released by the original motion imparted by arm 63, results in the continued regular operation of the clock mechanism.

Teeth 53 and 60 having assumed the positions shown inFigure 5, it will be seen that reverse rotation of handle 52 in counter-clockwise direction will merely cause a ratcheting of tooth 58 past the teeth of. gear 49. Likewise, normal unwinding or rotation of gear 49 in a counterclockwise direction occasioned by the gradual unwinding of spring l5 will similarly result in ratcheting of pinion 56 past the teeth of gear 49 and will not impart undue impetus to escape wheel 3| during the normal operation of the clock mechanism. However, immediately upon clockwise rotation of the-handle 52, teeth 58 and 60 will engage the teeth of gear 49 and be rotated thereby to the position occupied by teeth 51 and 59 in Figure 4 to impart a snap action to arm 62 and obtain the same results as previously discussed in connection with arm 63.

In Figures 6 to 8,- inclusive, there is shown a slip friction mechanism which permits the unwinding of the mechanism including spring I5 should too great a tension be imparted thereto. A disk I0 is rotatably mounted on a reduced portion II of shaft below first wheel 20. Disk 10 a a pl ali y of extending arms 12 which, as

1 whole is held in related assembly as by means of a collar 80 rigidly secured to shaft II.

From the foregoing it will now be seen that rotation of handle 52 in a clockwise direction as viewed in Figure 2 serves to wind the mechanism and tension spring l5. Such rotation causes counter-clockwise rotation of gear 54 and shaft ll. However, since Figure 7 is a bottom view, such-rotation of shaft l'l appears in Figure 7 as clockwise rotation. Thus, rotation of the handle 52 in a clockwise direction viewed in Figure 2 imparts clockwise rotation to shaft II, as seen in Figure 7, and thus to disk 10 through friction washer 18 which is rigidly secured to shaft II by the engagement of flattened portion 11 therewith. The arms 12 then assume the positionshown in dotted lines in Figure 8 and ratchet past the spokes of first wheel 20. Likewise, the corresponding rotation of collet I8 is imparted to the end of spring l5 attached thereto whereby the tension of spring I5 is increased to any desired point. In consequence of the above described ratcheting movement, no motion is imparted to gear train l9.

After spring I5 has been tensioned, its normal tendency is to unwind and such unwinding tends to rotate gear 20 through friction washer l8 and the abutment of portions 15 of arm I2 with the inner surface of spokes 2lof first wheel 20, the frictional force imparted to friction washer 18 by spring diskIQ being sufficient to drive wheel under such circumstances.

However, assuming spring l5 to be tootightly tensioned, reverse movement of shaft H permits collet l8 to be rotated in a direction to relieve the tension. of spring l5, the pressure of spring disk 19 being insufficient to overcome the resistance of the gear train I! when the mechanism is rotated at such a relatively high speed as that imparted by manual rotation of handle 52.

Having particular reference to Figure 9, a fragment of. a casing 8| adapted to surround the clock mechanism supports a downwardly depending lug 82. Lug 82 is positioned in the path of rotative movement of projection 5| and serves as a stop member to limit the rotation of projection' 5| and hence of gear 19. It will, accordingly, be seen that the handle 52 maybe given only one substantially complete rotation in either direction. The mechanism is so arranged that a single full rotation of handle 52 will impart such tension to spring l5 as to permit the mechanism to run for a definite predetermined period, as illustratively 12 hours.

This mechanism is of particular utility for apparatus wherein it is desirable to provide a clock whichwill be infallibly started and which will then operate for a predetermined period in association with other mechanism,.as is the case in the structures disclosed in the above mentioned application of Carl G. Kronmiller. As above stated, the instant structure may be set to run for a predetermined period as determined by the amount of tension imparted to spring l5 by rotation of handle 52 and this tension may be readily determined since in the preferred embodiment of the invention exterior handle 52 is positioned in substantial alignment with projection 5| and by its position indicates the relative position of projection 5| with respect to lug 82. It will be understood that abutment of projection 5| with lug 82 on one side occurs when spring I5 is at its maximum desired tension, and abutment on the other side occurs when spring I5 is at the minimum desired tension. Thus, if the mechanism is such that one full rotation of handle 52 tensions spring I5 to actuate the clock mechanism for a period of i2 hours, as stated, a half turn of handle 52 will cause actuation of. the mechanism for a period of six hours and a quarter turn for a period of three hours. The slip friction mechanism above described is provided in order that should the mechanism be set for a period of, illustratively, four hours and it be subsequently determined that a three hour period is suflicient, the mechanism may be turned back to reduce the tension of spring l5 .to such a point that the three hour period of operation ensues. It will, accordingly, be seen that the mechanism may be set to run for any desired length of time from any position of winding, and that uponwinding of the device, the mechanism will be started under any conditions without other agitation thereof.

From the foregoing it will also be seen that there is herein provided a structure which accomplishes all the objects of this invention and others including many advantages of great practical importance.

As many modifications may be made of the above described structure and as many changes may be made in the embodiment herein set forth, it is to be understood that all matter .herein described or shown in the accompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim as my invention:

A device of the character described, comprising, in combination, a clock mechanism including a balance wheel, a winding stem, means to rotate said winding stem, and means to impart the motion initially imparted to said winding stem to said balance 'wheel to agitate the same and start said clock mechanism, said last mentioned means comprising a gear affixed to said winding stem, and resilient means adjacent said balance wheel actuated by said gear and adapted to brusliagainst said balance wheel upon motion of said winding stem.

2. A device of the character described, comprising, in combination, a clock mechanism including a winding stem, a gear fixedly related thereto, a pinion, means for causing said pinion to rotate including teeth thereon adapted to engage said gear, a springarm carried by said pinion and a balance wheel positioned adjacent said arm whereby rotation of said winding stem imparts rotation to said balance wheel through said spring arm.

3. A device of the character described, comprising, in combination, a clock mechanism including a winding stem and a balance wheel, a gear carried by said winding stem, and means to start said mechanism upon rotation of said winding stem, said means comprising a pinion having teeth thereon adjacent said winding stem said gear and said teeth being adapted to mesh, and means carried by said pinion adapted to brush against the balance wheel of said clock mechanism.

cluding a winding stem and a balance wheel, a

gear carried by said winding stem, and means to start said mechanism upon rotation of said winding stem, said means comprising a pinion having teeth associated therewith adapted to be rotated by. rotation of said winding stem through said gear, and a spring arm carried by said pinion adapted to engage said balance wheel whereby to impart rotative movement thereto.

5. A device of the character described, comprising, in combination, a gear train, a main spring to drive the same, a winding stem to impart tension to said main spring and a balance wheel in association with said gear train, means to impart initial motion to said balance wheel, said last mentioned means comprising a pinion positioned adjacent said balance wheel and carrying a spring arm adapted to brush thereagainst, and a gear associated with said winding stem and rotated thereby, said gear being adapted to impart rotative movement to said pinion.

6. A device of the character described, comprising, in combination, a clock mechanism including a winding stem and a balance wheel, means to impart motion to said balance wheel to start said clock mechanism, said last mentioned means comprising a pinion carrying adjacent an extremity thereof oppositely disposed teeth, a gear mounted for rotation with said winding stem, the arrangement being such that the teeth of said gear engage the teeth of said pinion, resilient means carried by said pinion positioned to brush against said balance wheel and a second resilient means to impart a rapid motion to said first mentioned resilient means. 40'

'7. A device of the character described, comprising, in combination, a clock mechanism including a winding stem and a balance wheel, means to impart motion to said balance wheel to start said clock mechanism, said last mentioned means comprising a pinion carrying adjacent an extremity thereof oppositely disposed teeth, a gear mounted for rotation with said winding stem, the arrangement being such that the teeth of said gear engage the teeth of said 'being so shaped as to provide a cam surface whereby upon rotation by said gear beyond a certain point a snap action is imparted thereto by said spring to complete said rotative movement rapidly.

8. A device of the character described, comprising; in combination, a clock mechanism including a winding stem and a balance wheel aad means to start said mechanism upon rotation of said winding stem, said means comprising a pinion geared to said winding stem and means carried by said pinion adapted to brush against the balance wheel of said clock mechanism, and means to impart a snap action to said means carried by said pinion.

9. A device of the character described, comprising, in combination, a clock mechanism including a winding stem and a balance wheel, a gear carried by said winding stem, means to start said mechanism upon. rotation of said winding stem, said means comprising a pinion having teeth thereon adjacent to and deriving motion from said gear and means carried by said pinion adapted to brush against the balance wheel of said clock mechanism, and means to impart a snap action to said means carried by said pinion, said last mentioned means comprising a spring in abutting relation with said pinion.

10. A device of the character described, com prising, in combination, a gear train, a main spring to drive the same, a winding stem to impart tension to said main spring and a balance wheel in association with said gear train, means to'impart initial motion to said balance wheel, said last mentioned means comprising a pinion positioned adjacent said balance wheel and carrying a spring arm adapted to brush thereagainst, a gear associated with said winding stem and rotated thereby, said gear being adapted to impart rotative movement to said pinion and means to impart a snap action to said arm carried by said pinion.

ANDREWG. McNICOLL. 

